Do you know your cones?

Plink, plink, plink, plop. Plink, plink, plink, plop. The sound of a busy squirrel harvesting cones as they drop to the forest floor. The squirrel is harvesting cones with the seeds still intact so he can stash them for winter. 

A few “green” cones may be forgotten by the squirrel and they join the hundreds of other cones in varying stages of decay that have fallen onto the forest floor. 

A green grand fir cone most likely harvested by a squirrel 

After hearing the squirrel’s chatter, I decided to wander through the woods and see how many different cones I could find. I didn’t find cones from all the conifers in the area but I found nine--from the large western white pine cone to the tiny western redcedar cone. 

How many cones can you identify? Clockwise from top left: ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, western larch, western hemlock, western redcedar, western white pine, grand fir, Engelmann spruce and Douglas-fir. 

Recent swarms of insects are woolly aphids

During the past few weeks, swarms of tiny blue and white insects have pelted windshields like raindrops and stuck to the clothing of anyone walking through them. The millions of almost cottonwood-seed-fluff-like insects are none other than woolly aphids, also known as ash bugs, fluff bugs or fairy flies. 

Like many other animals, woolly aphids are on the move in the fall because they are migrating. They aren’t migrating to warmer climates like birds but instead to a different host plant. 

Swarms of woolly aphids can look like snow falling or drifting cottonwood seeds--but out of season!

Digging deep into the formation of igneous rocks

Myrtle’s Turtle and the Beehive are two of the most spectacular rock exposures in the Selkirk Mountains. They are the Half Domes of the Selkirk Mountains and rightly so because they, including Half Dome in Yosemite, are masses of granitic rock. 

Myrtle's Turtle is a huge dome of exposed granitic rock

Last week, I discussed the composition of granitic rocks but didn’t delve into the formation. Going deep beneath the surface reveals the variations of the granitic rocks in the Selkirk Mountains.

Rocks in the Selkirks not all the same

From the giant rock faces of Myrtle’s Turtle and the Beehive to the rocky shorelines of Trout Lake, one can’t help but notice the rock that forms the Selkirk Mountains. 

The speckled black, white and gray rocks found underfoot on trails and shorelines in most of the Selkirk Mountains of North Idaho, except for the far northwest corner of Boundary County, are granitic rocks.

A collection of rocks found on the Hidden Lake trail shows some of the variations of granitic rock in the Selkirk Mountains

From afar the rocks on Roman Nose look similar to West Fork Ridge but there are slight variations. 

What’s the difference between a bug and a beetle?

Often I find myself referring to any insect as a bug unless I know specifically what it is, such as a dragonfly, butterfly or praying mantis. However, upon trying to identify an insect I found out that bugs are insects but not all insects are bugs. 

Insect and bug are often used interchangeably but from an entomological standpoint they are different. Insect refers to an arthropod with six jointed legs, an exoskeleton, generally two pairs of wings, and a body consisting of a head, thorax and abdomen. 

All insects have six legs like this green shield bug

Insects are divided into 25 orders and one order, Hemiptera, classifies bugs. The largest order, Coleoptera, classifies beetles. 

Some common bugs include aphids, cicadas, water striders, stinkbugs and spittlebugs. Common beetles include fireflies, ladybird beetles and cucumber beetles.

What is the difference between a bug and a beetle? 

Pronghorn fastest land mammal in North America

Capable of bursts of speed greater than 60 miles per hour and sustained speeds of 45 mph, the pronghorn gracefully speeds across the American Plains and grasslands across the West. 

If a pronghorn and a cheetah raced, the cheetah would win the sprint and the pronghorn would win the marathon. 

Pronghorns stand two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half feet tall at the shoulders and range from 75 to 140 pounds

The never-ending aspen

One of my favorite sounds is the rustling of aspen leaves in the wind. While most leaves are attached to branches with round stems, quaking aspen have a flat stem that causes the leaf to tremble in the slightest breeze.

Aspen leaves are nearly circular with pointed tips

An added bonus is that aspen trees aren’t usually found by themselves but in groves. So when the leaves tremble, there is a pleasant sound all-around. 

Garter snakes most common snake in Idaho

Unlike southern Idaho, North Idaho is thankfully devoid of poisonous snakes. The snakes that do live in the forested region of the north are harmless to humans and the ones you’ll most likely encounter are garter snakes. 

Two types of garter snakes live in Boundary County--the common garter snake and the western terrestrial garter snake. Both have three cream to yellow stripes running down their length, with one dorsal (back) stripe and one on each side. The stripes on the western terrestrial garter snake can appear wavy because dark, pencil eraser-sized spots scattered over its back overlap the edges of the stripes.

Common garter snake

Another way to tell the two snakes apart is the color between the stripes--the common garter snake is very dark to black while the western terrestrial garter snake is olive to greenish gray. Additionally, most common garter snakes have red spots on the sides of their bodies.